Like many entrepreneurs, William White and his partner at TraceIt, a logistics startup, wanted to get going by bootstrapping, earning investments from venture capitalists. After searching through the professional funding circuits and securing about $30,000 in grants and competition earnings, White and his partner turned to a customer for capital.

White said it's more challenging for startups to gain funding through professional investors. So instead of blowing through resources to find those investors, the TraceIt founders looked inward — to industry players with market footholds. In February, TraceIt locked in $500,000 in seed funding from a McKinney-based trucking company with technology demands TraceIt is already looking to meet.

It's a partnership of sorts, and it's part of a growing business trend that essentially flips the entrepreneurial business model on its head.

"For us, the investment needed to be more than just money," White said. "More importantly, we wanted someone with a lot of contacts in their industry and to help us develop a product that's tailored to that industry."

Larger companies invest in startup companies for many reasons. Whereas the traditional view of venture capital investment is an entrepreneur making a pitch for capital, going after rounds of funding, the large companies are the customers with innovative needs of their own.

Because large companies have deeper industry roots — and fatter budgets — startups can win big from these strategic investments. Corporate venture capitalists are looking for startups whose missions align, or can be synergistic, with, their company's mission. It's not just a financial investment.

Startups can win opportunities to build disruptive technologies that can boost a company's viability in the market. By working with an established company, startups can gain bellwether insights as they work to take their own services to market.

"Those are extremely valuable partnerships on both ends, because it's essentially a strategic partner once again, and because they're already your customer, they understand your business," Bosovik said. "It's very attractive for some of these startups to find an investor like that vs. going to a venture capitalist and just taking the money. Getting money is not always the best answer."

Like Trace It, Adaptive 3D started in the Venture Development Center.

Voit, Adaptive 3D's president and founder, said strategic investments are ideal for early startups because they minimize some of the risks that come with entering a sector. Adaptive 3D operates in materials segments, among others. Voit said testing new products can be costly, so why not connect with a large company that can guide his business through the testing phases?

"This is the behind-the-scenes stuff that will power the next generation of technological revolution," chief operating officer David McCarley said.

What is happening at UTD offers a glimpse into Dallas' own business-to-business ecosystem. Other business schools in North Texas offer scholarships and funding for entrepreneurs, but the Venture Development Center is an on-campus incubator. UTD, Bosovik said, wants to connect Dallas' legacy corporations to its growing startup segments.

Students or anybody — preferably alumni — can reach out to the VDC. There, entrepreneurs will find workshops and other resources to find funding, build teams and market products. The program is expanding. In 2011, the VDC housed 11 startups. Now, 25 are plugged in.

One of those companies is Bridge Alliance, a research company of three humans and full of artificial intelligence. Just this month, Bridge Alliance moved in to the Venture Development Center to be in the middle of Dallas' startup evolution.

Problematic geography

Ken Koo, the company's chief executive, is one of the players embracing Dallas' corporate environment as a way to get smaller businesses up and running. Big businesses and startups alike gain from a connected Dallas, he says. That's why he spends so much time driving around North Texas, meeting with clients and potential customers.

There are fewer venture capitalists in the Dallas area than in Silicon Valley or in the Northeast. But what makes North Texas especially problematic is its geography — everybody is spread so far apart, Koo said. The three main ingredients for success in Silicon Valley, he said, are large corporations, early-stage ventures and higher education. "We have the first two," he said, but there is no go-to university as a start-up hub. There is no entrepreneurship bubble in Dallas.

"I think there's a lot that goes on in North Texas that does not get its fair share of notice," White, of TraceIt, said.

Bridge Alliance emerges as a potential solution.

For Bridge Alliance, the large corporations are the clients. Bridge Alliance connects with companies and searches for startups whose missions align with the corporation's needs. Todd Alsup, chief marketing officer for Bridge Alliance, said the company later serves as an adviser to its clients. It doesn't oversee any financial investments. Bridge Alliance is merely a research firm; all the rest is handled between the startups and corporate venture capitalists.

Koo and Alsup said their software crawls the internet to determine which startups best serve their client's needs. Companies are matched based on their industries and capabilities. Reports are sent to the clients, who decide whether to pursue a partnership or strategic investment.